Vangor:Whatever. He is upset about the election and is not hurting the flag at all. Plus, he served for many years. He is entitled to this though I disagree with his position and his expression.

As a current active duty member of the Core, I think he needs to pull his head out of his ass.

Flying the flag upside down is a sign of deep distress for a ship, a unit, or the country. He is personally upset that that a candidate of his choice was defeated in a relatively fair, open, and democratic process. There were no riots in the streets, there were no bombings at polling stations, and it sounds like voter intimidation was minimal.

Our country is not in distress, our country just showed that we can still hold to our ideals in the face of some determined efforts to undermine them. His hissy fit over candidate selection does not rate a flag upside down. He is not the United States, and his political party is not the United States. The flag belongs to us all. He is being dis-respectful to the flag, and to the members of the armed forces who have died trying to help people in Iraq and Afghanistan have elections as smooth and fair as ours just was.

More people should do things of this nature so the idiots stand out from the crowd. I have the feeling that if this guy considers his current situation to be distress, his time in the Navy was rather uneventful.

Or he was kicked out of the Navy for being a dumbass and now has an axe to grind against the government.

He said he was in for 7.5 years. Enlistments are normally in increments of 4 years, so the fact that he got out six months early is a little odd.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom:Why are people shiatting their parents over the election? Obama has done a decent job so far, what's all the panic about another term?

Because cheap, easy access to heathcare, regulating banks, and paying higher taxes makes Jesus cry. You know, the guy who healed the sick, kicked the asses of the moneylenders, and said "Yield unto Caesar what is Caesar's"

Flying the flag upside down conventionally indicates an immediate danger to one's life. Whatever one thinks about the results of an election, there is no immediate danger to that man's life. In a sense, what he's doing is the visual equivalent of calling 911.

AverageAmericanGuy:Nightsweat: AverageAmericanGuy: This country is in trouble. It's been in trouble for over a decade now.

The Mexican drug war is banging on our front gates and seems ready to spill into the southern states.

LA TImes had an article that there was an expectation that the vote legalizing pot in two states last Tuesday would cut billions off the Mexican cartels profits since suppliers would probably turn to semi-legal pot from the States rather than risk crossing the border. They thought it could cut billions off the cartels' bottom line.

There are a couple problems with that. First being that marijuana is still illegal at the Federal level, so there isn't any legal interstate commerce allowing it to be imported from WA or CO. Second, the users aren't only living in WA and CO. The number of users living outside those two states far outnumber those two. Third, even if the supply from WA and CO were sufficient to fulfill the demand throughout the country, the very fact that the producers were legal and subject to licensing means that they would be loath to jump back into the gray zone by distributing across state lines.

Now, there might be smuggling to bring American-grown pot to the rest of the states, but now we're talking about competing with the Mexican drug cartels for marketshare, and if the past decade has shown us anything it's that they take competition very seriously.

I just don't see the problem of Mexican drugs going away or even being mitigated in states that don't have decriminalization.

Mexican drug cartels won't go away with the legalization of Marijuana. However, it will severely cut into their profits, making them far less able to continue their choke-hold on Mexican politicians, police, and the populace. It will also make them far easier to deal with at the boarder.

As far as US pot being able to compete with Mexico, you bet it will. When was the last time you were stopped at a state/state border? It will be dangerous to transport drugs out of CO and WA, yes, but must less dangerous than getting them into the US via Mexico. The quality control will also be FAR superior. Meaning, buyer won't need to purchase as much because THC levels will be better, and they will be able to purchase less, which translates into transporting less, which makes the prices go down. Also, more people will be flocking to WA and CO for vacation for the purpose of being able to legally use Marijuana...because why not?

and if I remember correctly, in CO every resident will be able to grow 6 plants in their homes. the roughly 5k federal agents throughout the US will not be going door to door to bust people federally for growing plants. And they won't be getting help from the state agencies either. That would be a direct violation of the law that was passed.

If things go right, this is the beginning of the end for the drug war, and the beginning of a far more peaceful and financially stable American society. Hopefully.

More people should do things of this nature so the idiots stand out from the crowd. I have the feeling that if this guy considers his current situation to be distress, his time in the Navy was rather uneventful.